Trevor Dwyer, in a lava tube called Kaumana Caves, during a field camp experience.
Trevor Dwyer, a 2020 graduate from Orchard Park who majored in Geology with a minor in Geographic Information Systems, was awarded third place and a cash prize for his presentation, “Pressure-Temperature Conditions of Migmatite from Lac Dumoine Terrane, Western Grenville Province," at the Buffalo Association of Professional Geologists’ Virtual Geology Scholarship Event.
Undergraduate and graduate students from Western New York participated in the online event held on May 27. Mr. Dwyer’s presentation was based on his year-long research project on a migmatite (a partially molten rock) from western Quebec, supervised by Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences Assistant Professor Wentao Cao.
Dwyer documented detailed petrographic textures that are characteristic of partial melting and conducted mineral characterization with petrographic microscope and advanced micro-analytical instruments. Using trace element thermometry and thermodynamic modeling, Dwyer found that the migmatite reached approximately 900 C at a depth of roughly 45 km. This implies that the root of the Grenville Orogen, a mountain belt nearly 1.05 billion years ago, was sufficiently hot to partially melt rocks.
The Buffalo Association of Professional Geologists was founded in 1985 to strengthen and advance the geological sciences.
